<p><font color="#33711E"><strong>Day 1 - Session 2E: Building Healthy Communities</strong></font></p>

Saithip, 16:00 - 17:30

16:00 - 16:20

2.E.1. Community-based Education and Services in a University Medical Programme: A Means to Sustaining Rural Health Development

Marykutty Mammen and Amalio Del Rio Walter Sisulu University, South Africa

The services provided by doctors and other health professionals are important components in the quality of life in any country. To ensure doctors and health professionals are adequately prepared, it is crucial to expose them to the challenges and health-needs within communities, both in rural and urban areas, during their study and training. This philosophy has influenced the structure, content and implementation of the study and training periods of health professionals in the Faculty of Health Sciences of a public (state-funded) university situated in a rural area of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The Faculty's mission statement declares that it is committed to excellence and social responsiveness through the integration of community service into its learning programmes (involving both teaching and research), with a special emphasis on sustainable rural development and in partnership with communities and service providers. The programme attempts to equip the students with technical skills for patient care and the skills for the tasks in the health care delivery within communities. This paper examines the various aspects of the curriculum, its implementation and the challenges of community-based education and services with special reference to the first two years of the doctors' academic programme.

Download the presentation (pdf, 1.7mb)

16:20 - 16:40
2.E.2. "From The Bottom Up": Creating Sustainable Environmental Health Communities of Learning and Practice in Ecuador
Annalee Yassi, Fabio Cabarcas, Ronaldo Fujii, Elena Orrego, Francisco Silva and Jerry Spiegel
University of British Columbia, Canada

Developing knowledge, while building solutions to fundamental challenges of sustainable development, calls for innovative approaches to learning. UBC's award-winning Sustainably Managing Environmental Health Risk in Ecuador project has championed problem-based learning (PBL), and community-based learning (CBL) to respond to this challenge, building on Canadian experiences in this area, while acquiring new insights. Following the successful delivery of 13 training modules and 2 thesis seminars in Ecuador that introduced new learning and teaching processes (including PBL and CBL), teams involving Ecuadorian thesis directors, international faculty and coordination assistants have been established to provide ongoing mentoring and direction for 30 students of the Masters of Health (with an Ecosystem Focus) programme at three Ecuadorian universities. These students are now conducting their thesis work as university-community research partnerships in 15 communities. Furthermore, a teachers' manual is now being prepared. Transforming learning from a largely passive experience to one of intense interaction through small groups and direct community engagement requires systematic mentoring to guide students through this process, so that more sustainable outputs and impacts can be consolidated. This paper discusses the challenges of interactive learning in university-community partnership research, as well as the processes of transformation and how to support it, so that the lessons can be shared.

Download paper (pdf, 1.2mb) and presentation (pdf, 3.5mb)

16:40 - 17:00
2.E.3. Teaching and Learning Processes in Community Health Nursing: Underneath the Violent Situation of Narathiwat Province - Toward Harmonized Societies
Atcha Suwannakan,
Princess of Naradhiwas University, Thailand

This paper presents the experiences gained through teaching and learning in public health nursing before and after the violent situation in Narathiwat province in Thailand. The main components for developing harmonized societies through teaching and learning in community health nursing include: effective community leadership and groups; government support; effective learning and direct experience in community health nursing; and an effective teaching process. This paper describes the concepts that successfully led to harmonizing society and the methods of teaching and learning used in community health nursing. These concepts can be applied in similar contexts elsewhere.